Set Up Virtual Inventory Tracking
FlexNet Manager Suite
2024 R1
(On-Premises)
IBM's requirements include that you must track movement of any relevant virtual
machine when it moves between hosts. To do this, you also need to configure
inventory gathering on virtual hosts. Three different approaches apply, depending on
the methods that FlexNet Manager Suite can use to gather information about guest
VMs:
- Agent on host: Where data about guest VMs is available to the FlexNet Inventory Agent locally installed on the host (as is the case with Microsoft Hyper-V), simply deploy the FlexNet Inventory Agent locally on the server, as you do to all other devices that may run software under IBM sub-capacity licenses. In this case, the virtual host is added to the target All devices consuming IBM PVU points, and is managed on the same high-frequency schedule that applies to all installations of FlexNet Inventory Agent on devices running software licensed under IBM PVU or IBM VPC licenses.
- Agent on guest: Where data about the VM/host relationship is
available within the VM itself (as is the case for LPARs, vPARs, nPARs,
containers and zones), the only requirement is to deploy the FlexNet Inventory Agent locally on the VM. This also automatically joins the
All devices consuming IBM PVU
points target.Tip: For Solaris zones, only the global zone contains details about the VM/host relationship. You must ensure that the FlexNet Inventory Agent is locally installed on the global zone, as well as in any non-global zones where you want to collect inventory.
- Direct inventory of host: For technologies where a locally-installed FlexNet Inventory Agent cannot access VM deployment details, but where there is an API available that exposes this data, FlexNet Manager Suite automatically maintains a separate target of such targets that require 'direct' inventory collection by an inventory beacon accessing the API. For these, you only need to configure discovery manually, since once a virtual host is discovered, it is automatically added to the (hidden) rule for high-frequency inventory gathering from these devices.
Tip: If your virtual device is an instance hosted by a cloud service provider, make sure that the Hosted in property
in the General tab of the inventory device properties is
correctly set to identify the cloud service provider. This is typically
automatic for AWS and Azure when inventory has been received from the FlexNet Inventory Agent installed on the instance; but for other cloud service providers, you must set the value manually (for example, this value is
not returned for Google Cloud). When Hosted in is
correctly set, the priority on properties used for calculating sub-capacity
points consumption changes to the following:
- If inventory returns the vCPU count (or thread count) as the number of
logical processors assigned to the instance, this property is used and
either:
- For an IBM PVU license, multiplied by the points per core from the PVU points table for the appropriate processor type
- For an IBM VPC license, multiplied by the appropriate ratio
(defined in the product use rights for the license):
- If the IBM VPC license is configured for consumption per product, the ratio of each primary product within the Cloud Pak bundle to VPC entitlements is used
- If the IBM VPC license is configured for consumption per device, the ratio of assigned/available cores to VPC entitlements is used.
- If the above value is missing, inventory is checked for a core count, and if found, this is used to multiply by the appropriate points value or ratio.
- If both of the above are missing, the Consumed count for this instance is forced to zero (since there is no audit-worthy data source); but if the processor count is available, this is used to populate the Calculated consumption field, as a general indication of likely consumption when the appropriate properties become available. In this case, the IBM sub-capacity license on which the incorrectly-recorded instance appears is flagged as problematic, because the consumption calculation is incorrect and likely affecting the region total consumption, possibly including its peak date and peak value (the primary factors affecting IBM sub-capacity license exposure). Keep in mind that, if you can determine and correct the vCPU or core count (perhaps using the override facility on the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties), this is taken as a retrospective correction and applied to the entire reporting period from the next overnight license compliance calculation.
To set up discovery (and the resulting automatic inventory gathering) on virtual hosts:
- A new policy for inventory beacons is prepared and downloaded soon. By default, it is within 15 minutes. To customize this interval, navigate to ,go to the Inventory Settings page (), and scroll down to the Beacon settings section.
- The policy is downloaded to all operating inventory beacons, each of which checks to see whether your rule needs to be executed by it (that is, whether there is any overlap between its assigned subnets and the target[s] declared in the rule). Unaffected inventory beacons, of course, ignore the policy change.
- Each affected inventory beacon applies your schedule, then (on schedule) triggers the action specified in the rule. Depending on subnet sizes, it may take a little while to complete the discovery process.
- Finally, the resulting discovery (.disco) files are uploaded to the central application server, and resolved into the inventory database. There they wait until the next full inventory import and license reconciliation, which happens by default overnight (although an operator in a role with Administrator privileges may trigger one sooner).
- After that, the discovered VMs and their hosts are visible in the All Discovered Devices page, and the automatic maintenance of special hidden targets and automated rules are ready to run as required (once you turn on high-frequency mode, as described in Turn on High-Frequency Mode).
- Thereafter, inventory is gathered from the target hosts automatically on the high-frequency schedule you enable.
FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)
2024 R1